Spiritual disciplines

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These disciplines will be necessarily contextual, determined by your local community, seeking the wisdom of others but recognising the call of God for you, in your place, at this time.

1. Prayer & Devotion

“Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray…’”

Luke 11

“Pray in all simplicity. The attitude of prayer is one and the same for all, but there are various and many different prayers. In your prayers there is no need for highflown words; for it is the simple and unsophisticated babblings of children that have more often won the heart of their Father in heaven. One word from the Tax Collector appeased God, and a single utterance of faith saved the Thief.”

Ladder of Divine Ascent, St John of Sinai

Each community will have a rhythm of:

  • Daily Prayer in Common (which may include morning, midday, evening, compline), including times of contemplation/silence/Examen/Lectio Divina

  • Regular Eucharist

We commit to being devoted to one another, preferring one another’s needs to our own, following the call of Christ. We desire to be accountable to one another in this.

These things we have found helpful and beneficial to our common life and discipleship and ask communities to consider them:

  • Pilgrimage

  • Confession - becoming aware of where we need to learn, where we need to own our mistakes, and where we need to make space for the mercy and forgiveness of God. Recognising that the life of the community is depends on us forgiving one another as Christ has forgiven us.

  • Spiritual direction

  • Retreat

2. Learning & Reconciliation

“Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventyseven times.”

Matthew 18

We seek to be communities of forgiveness. Faithful to one another even when we mess up, as we are on lifetime a lifetime of conversion.

“Seek wisdom while she may be found”. Refusal to see learning as simply knowledge, but a seeking after wisdom and a common sharing, that feeds our whole selves, and our communities, that shapes our heart, mind and soul.

We desire to spend time studying together and apart, most especially the scriptures and also learning from the mothers and fathers of the Church (particularly St Benedict, St Ignatius, St Clare and St Francis).

Seeking to learn from one another, and from the communities that make up the Society of the Holy Trinity, as well as those writers, poets, artists today who speak, write and image divine love. Seeking “treasures old and treasures new” that we might “renew the face of the earth.”

These things we have found helpful and beneficial to our common life and discipleship and ask communities to consider them:

  • Liturgy of reconciliation

  • Liturgy of confession

Service & Hospitality

“So if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us.

As servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honour and dishonour, in ill repute and good repute.”

2 Corinthians 5 and 6

Shared meals and attending regular community gatherings. Recognising that true hospitality is a making space, as Christ has made space for us, serving one another, as Christ has served us.

We desire to serve those areas in which we live. Recognising that Christ welcomes all, and Christ is all in all. Seeking to be obedient to the will of God and the call on our lives and our communities, recognising that Christ ministered to those who were poor, excluded and marginalised, seeking together to build the Kingdom of God.

We commit to sharing our material resources with those in need, to regular tithing to the church and to other charitable endeavours, and to sacrificial giving of our time and energies.

These things we have found helpful and beneficial to our common life and discipleship and we ask communities to consider them:

The Anglican 5 marks of mission:

  1. To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom

  2. To teach, baptise and nurture new believers

  3. To respond to human need by loving service

  4. To transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and pursue peace
    and reconciliation

  5. To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth

Work & Wellbeing

We are called to do ordinary things beautifully, to see work as a sanctuary, to recognise the beauty of God in the world. Our vocation is to see God in our work in the world, for prayer and work are mirrors of one another, each deepening our faith and relationship with God. Out of prayer and learning come the challenge of discerning where God is calling you. We desire that our faith is rooted in living practically, especially in seeking justice and understanding injustice. To see Christ and faith in others informs our way of life and our ongoing conversion.

Visible†Signs

“Take up your cross and follow me for those who lose their life will gain it.” Matthew 16.25

Each community is encouraged to wear something that exhibits their commitment to this common rule and common life, that shows forth Christ and reminds ourselves of our commitment. Communities may choose this and other signs as locally determined. At the service of commitment to this rule each community member should also be given a copy of this rule.